You’ve probably read a lot of writing advice saying that you should avoid using very long sentences because it increases the level of difficulty for readers, especially in a world where attention spans are much shorter, and small screen reading is increasing, but does the reduced frequency of simply using a period (or full stop) to break up ideas really make that much of a difference in how readable a sentence is, or is it merely a question of how much white space people are used to when screen reading compared to the more common approach in print, such as books and newspapers, where text is more frequently presented in larger blocks?
That’s a grammatically correct sentence of 112 words.
Did you have any problem reading and understanding it?
But do very long sentences still have a place in most forms of writing?
How Long Can One Sentence Be?
The great news is that just for once, there is no rule whatsoever governing the length of a sentence.
So, go for your life and know you’re not breaking or even bending the rules.
If you are into records, the book Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann mostly consists of a single sentence that is 426,100 words long.
Others include The Rotters’ Club, which has a sentence of 13,955 words, and This Book Is the Longest Sentence Ever Written and Then Published by Dave Cowen, which consists of one sentence running to 111,111 words. Source
There’s nothing new about the idea of using long sentences in writing, but these examples are really taking things to the extreme.
What I’m more interested in is the reticence many writers have today about using long sentences.
But I’m not talking about 100-plus-word sentences, which are not uncommon in genre fiction, but about 20, 30, and 40-word sentences that are perfectly fine in all forms of writing.
Perhaps it’s because many style guides, and a whole host of online writing and grammar checkers, have drilled into our heads that any sentence over 20 words is too long and needs to be split in two.
But is that good advice to follow?
I don’t think so.
How Do You Write Very Long Sentences?
This is where things get interesting, well, for me anyway.
All it takes to write a long sentence is to take a whole bunch of short sentences and stick them together.
If you have an affection for regular periods or full stops in your writing, take a deep breath.
The trick is to replace them with a comma, semicolon, or even an em dash, or to find a linking word to logically connect the ideas in a sentence.
Here’s how to build a long sentence from a group of short sentences.
I had an allergy test this morning. The lady who did the test had a lovely sense of humor.
She only needed to prick one finger to get a small blood sample. But it didn’t bleed enough. So she had to prick another finger to get more blood for the sample.
That one worked. Then I had to wait twenty minutes for the result. It came back negative. So, I’m not allergic to anything. Except, perhaps, hard work.
Perfect!
My writing checker loved these short, concise sentences. But I don’t.
I had an allergy test this morning, and the lady who carried it out had a lovely sense of humor, but although she only needed to prick one finger to get a small blood sample, it didn’t bleed enough, so she had to prick another finger to collect a bit more, which fortunately worked, and after that I had to wait twenty minutes for the result, which eventually came back negative, meaning that I’m not allergic to anything—except, perhaps, hard work.
So what did I use to glue the short sentences together?
- and to add information
- but for contrast
- although for a condition
- so for cause and result
- which to add extra information
- and after that to move the timeline forward
- which for more information
- meaning that to explain the outcome
- —except, perhaps for a final twist
As you can see, each new idea is clearly signalled, and for a reader, it’s easy to follow the little story.
Very long sentences aren’t difficult because they are long. They only become a real problem when the connections between the ideas aren’t clear.
Should You Use Long Sentences In Your Writing?
Yes and no.
Yes, they are great for adding sentence variety, but not when used too frequently.
It’s the same recipe as with any part of writing.
You always need to mix things up and avoid creating unintentional repetition with your vocabulary selection, sentence structures, and, here, with sentence length.
However, the examples I have used in this piece are a little on the extreme side, at around 100 words, but they are still perfectly readable and logical.
I only used them to prove the point that very long sentences are not necessarily hard to read.
So don’t be afraid of using sentences of 20, 25, or even 30 words. It depends on what you are writing, your readers, and how it will be read.
If you know a lot of your readers use a phone, yes, go easy on long sentences.
But for desktop, ebook, or print reading, you can use longer sentences without much concern.
The choice is up to you. But don’t always follow the dramatic advice of your writing checker when it turns red and angry at a 25-word sentence.
Summary
I’ll be honest with you.
You’ve probably guessed that I’m not a big fan of the seemingly accepted concept that writing needs to be aimed at the lowest common denominator.
I write about writing, and I’m pretty certain that most of my readers are writers too, so why would I want to simplify my writing and tone it down simply to please a grammar checker or some newly perceived idea of what “correct” writing should look like?
Long sentences have a place, and best of all, they are fun to construct, often becoming the point where writing becomes more interesting because they make you think.
Short sentences make a point.
But long sentences let you tell a story.
Related Reading: Sentence Structure And Flow Checker (Free Tool)
